Time for some new screenshots! These show material modifiers (which affect bumpiness, skidmarks, tyre smoke, slipperiness etc), and cockpits (no steering animations or controls yet)

The first screenshot shows the default material - white tyre smoke and black skidmarks. I'm loving the skidmarks :)

In this one, the grass material has green skidmarks, is bumpy, and if you look closely, green tyre smoke (its easier to see in game).

This one shows the Eagle skidding along the frozen lake in the Ice level. White smoke and white skid marks, and very slippery.

And now a couple of cockpit views.  It took ages to figure out the placement of the cockpit image (the dashboard/steering wheel) compared to the 3d bonnet model, but comparing screenshots of the original game to these I think I've got it as good as I'm going to ever get it.  There are some pretty cryptic lines in the car file describing the placement and configuration of the speedo and tacho - I think for now I'll get the steering wheel actually steering then leave it for now.

I finally tracked down Shayde!  Shayde wrote the timedemo crack and encrypted file decoders for the C1 demo and full version.  He very nicely dug around his old source code (this was 10 years ago now), found them, and sent me the code.  I ported it to c#, and now it means that Carmageddon XNA will be able to read both encrypted and unencrypted files.

This is awesome, because I want to release my Carmageddon.exe along with the completely original, unmodified Carmageddon 1 demo files.  This means you don't have to have an old copy of Carmageddon lying around to try out my engine, and also I don't annoy anyone at Stainless / SCi by distributing content from the full game!

Thanks again Shayde - even now I don't know how you managed to work the encryption out :)

Edit: And tire tracks are now done, and look awesome :)

I've almost finished material modifiers. Material modifiers give a certain material physical properties, like bumpiness, slipperyness, what kind of particles should used when driving / skidding.

It means that now the grass is bumpy and more slippery than normal, so just like in the original game its easier to spin out. Simulating bumpiness is a cool idea, because the environment polygon count is kept low by using large flat polygons, but with the car bouncing around it makes the environment seem more detailed.

Probably the coolest thing is the frozen lake in the ice maps, now the car goes sliding with almost no grip across the lake. Lots of fun!

Right now I am working on tire tracks (which are also affected by the material modifiers)

EDIT: Someone asked how I actually implemented the bumpiness. I used the PhysX method AddLocalForceAtLocalPosition to randomly push the car upwards under one of the wheels.

Physics Test 3

Another video :) This one shows some pretty big gains in the vehicle physics, breakable objects and particle effects (sparks and vehicle bits when you crash)

I've also implemented audio and race countdown animations.



Next step is implement tyre tracks, material modifiers and special volumes. Then checkpoints, other vehicles, pedestrians and powerups...

Today I finished support for vehicles with less or more than 4 wheels (previously I had assumed all cars had 4 wheels, and were rear wheel drive).  This means weird cars like Faust, Hammer and awesomely the Big Apc can be driven in CarmageddonXNA

I've been struggling for a while to understand why the maps in Carmageddon XNA feel smaller than in the original game.  I hadn't been able to put my finger on why until now.  I was watching a youtube video of the Maim Street map when I saw view from the start grid was not the same as the original.  The Field of View I was using was wrong!  The field of view controls how much the camera sees sideways, which has the effect of making objects directly in front of the camera seem stretched.

Heres a screenshot from the original game.  Note the lampost and small amount of yellow barrier on the right.

Now my game, on the left using the standard 45deg field of view, and on the right using 55.55 (as found in Carmageddon's general.txt settings file). On the left, the buildings look taller and stubby compared the shot on the right, where the buildings appear to stretch into the distance more. Its made a big difference to the feel of the game as you drive around :)